TITLE OF THE PUBLICATION
Educational integration of cultural minorities
SURNAME AND NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Chamizo de la Rubia, José.
PUBLISHER
Spanish Journal of Comparative Education.
PLACE AND DATE OF PUBLICATION
National University of Distance Education, UNED. Spain.
2002
TYPE OF PUBLICATION
Research
LANGUAGE OF THE DOCUMENT
Spanish
LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW
English
THEMATIC AREA
Integration of immigrants students
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
This article reflects over the educative integration of cultural minorities in Andalusia. Specifically, it analyzes the educative attention that gypsy students receive; the challenge for the future that supposes the integration of immigrant students in the educative system; and the growing process of marginalization of several schools.
Regarding the gypsy students, it has been brought up the controversy of creating a school network that holds as its lines of action the encouragement and promotion of the values of the gypsy culture, an idea that supposes the transition to the Spanish educative scenario of the debate that is taking place in other European nations for a while now (e.g. Islamic schools in the United Kingdom). Leaving the controversy aside, it is explained that the social integration of the gypsy population, whose level of school absenteeism and failure is very elevated (over 30%), must go through a proper educative integration of its younger generations, and this can only be possible if the educative system is able to offer them an education that has as its premise the respect of their own cultural and social reality. From the institution of the Defender of the Andalusian People, the initiative of the Territorial Delegation of Education and Science of the Junta of Andalusia to enable the study in schools that teach children of the gypsy ethnicity the history and culture of this group, is welcomed. In this way, the Andalusian Plan for the Education of the Immigrant Population is eulogized, as the correct planning for the change that society will suffer in the following years. Finally, it shows the preoccupation for the process of marginalization for which several schools are seeing themselves headed, and that could end turning into "educative ghettos". A process that could result in situations of segregation and social and educative discrimination, with grave consequences on social peace and coexistence as they would include ethnical or racial components.
COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION
The author of the article, José Chamizo, was appointed by the Parliament of Andalusia as the Defender of the Andalusian People in 1996, and he has being reelected in 2011 and 2007. His career has been closely related to the most disfavored groups, being himself the creator and director of several organizations and groups which fight against drug use. In this way, it is noticeable his trajectory in the fight against the discrimination of the gypsy population group, a group which is significantly numerous in Andalusia, where between a 40% and a 50% of the gypsy population in Spain resides, which supposes a 3% of the total Andalusian population.
This article shows the important implication of the institution of the Defender of the Andalusian Population when facing the challenge of multiculturalism in schools and society. It analyzes the trajectory in Andalusian classrooms focusing in cultural diversity through the history of school integration of the gypsy community, highlighting the main achievements and weaknesses in this field.
The Defender clearly believes in education as a social tool to correct cohesive and social inequality. He points, as the real challenge of the current educative system, the education of Andalusian society to be tolerant and open, to totally accept this upcoming new society, more based in diversity than in unity, and more based in multiculturalism than in the defense of common cultural features. This way, he proposes that even though multiculturalism is a growing reality in our society, interculturalism is only a work method so that this society really becomes a plural and diverse society, where each person can see himself fulfilled disregarding his background, origin, or for belonging a certain cultural or social group.
Name of Compiler
Rosario del Rey
Name of Institution
University of Seville
Role in the institution
Research
